Leader Staff
The village of Bonduel has joined a growing list of northeast Wisconsin communities asking its water customers to keep a tap running to avoid frozen pipes.
Village President Melvin Wendland sent a letter to village residents Tuesday encouraging those who have not started already to begin running a constant stream of water.
Wendland said the village has experienced “numerous frozen water service laterals to individual homes” due to the extremely cold weather.
The letter went out the same day northeast Wisconsin started to get a brief respite from the cold, with temperatures expected to top out well above freezing Wednesday and Thursday.
However, colder temps are forecast to settle back in this weekend, and the couple of days of warmer weather is not expected to alleviate the problem of frost that has deeply permeated the soil.
The village of Wittenberg issued a similar notice to its water customers on Feb. 6, and the city of Clintonville did the same last week. Others following suit in the region have included Gillett, Lena and Oconto Falls.
The Bonduel notice asks water customers to run a quarter-inch diameter stream of water from one faucet in the home 24 hours a day.
“We anticipate you will need to run this water until early April,” Wendland said in the letter.
Customers will be notified when it’s safe to turn off the water.
Customers won’t be charged for the excess water consumption and sewer charges while the notice is in effect. Utility bills will be calculated based on past average use, the village said.
Additionally, the village also reminds residents who live adjacent to fire hydrants to clear the snow away from the hydrants.